Michael Bloomberg
Michael BloombergReuters

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg filed paperwork on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission to run for US president as a Democrat, Reuters reported.

The filing allows Bloomberg to raise money in a bid for the White House, but an aide made clear that no final decision on whether he will run has been made.

Bloomberg, 77, previously announced in March that he would not run for president in 2020, due to what he cited as the “difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination in such a crowded field.”

Earlier this month, however, he filed for the 2020 Democratic primary in Alabama, signaling he feels the field of nearly 20 candidates is vulnerable. If he enters, he will likely forgo the early states where potential rivals have been visiting for months.

A poll released earlier this month suggested Bloomberg would defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election – in the popular vote at least – if he were to win the Democratic nomination, a new poll shows.

According to the Morning Consult/Politico poll, if Bloomberg were to run as the Democratic nominee in 2020, he would win the popular vote by six points, 43% to 37%, with 21% of respondents unsure of who they would support.

Trump has downplayed Bloomberg’s presidential bid.

“Little Michael will fail,” he told reporters outside the White House. “There’s nobody I’d rather run against than Little Michael. I‘ve known Michael Bloomberg for a long time. He said a lot of great things about Trump. But I know Michael. He became just a nothing. He’s not going to do well, but I think he’s going to hurt [Joe] Biden, actually.”